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3/13: Iraq Ten Years Later: Our Work at Home, in Iraq and Around the World Continues

Ten years ago this month the United Sates embarked on one of the worst foreign policy decisions in the nation’s history. Fooling itself into believing that U.S. soldiers would be welcomed as liberators, the Bush Administration ordered the invasion of Iraq. March 19th began a more intensified subjugation and destruction of Iraq that really began with Operation Desert Storm in January 1991 when I was part of that invading force. 

Today due to the resistance of the Iraqi people and domestic

pressure created by the peace movement here in the U.S., officially U.S. forces have left Iraq and the Iraqi people are picking up the pieces of a destroyed national infrastructure and fragmented society. The two decades of Iraq Wars from 1991 to when the last U.S. troops left in 2011 must not be swept aside like a bad dream to be forgotten.  Our nation has an obligation to the people of Iraq and to U.S. service members sent to fight, bleed and die there. I congratulate the peace movement for its successful efforts to bring our troops home and end the violence caused by U.S. military operations and or the presence of our forces, but there is still much work to do to help the people of Iraq and U.S. troops and the communities to which they have returned heal.

As always the peace and anti-war community is busy with over flowing plates of work to do. There have been important developments in the Bradley Manning case. He needs our support as much as anyone. March is Women’s History month and as we celebrate the triumphs and continuing struggles of women here at home, the challenges women face around the world in the U.S. war machine and in the aftermath of U.S. wars must be part of the dialogue.

We are beginning preparations for the April 15th Global Day of Action on Military Spending to end the madness of international squandering of material resources and people’s lives and we must support our allies in the struggle for a clean and sustainable environment so that we can have safe food and clean air and water.

Thank you for your devotion to peace and justice. We will continue in the struggle because it honors those who brought us this far, it is the right thing to do, and we know that together we are making a difference for the better.

Power to the peaceful
Michael T. McPhearson

International Women’s Day celebration this year coincides with the tenth anniversary of the tragic attack of the US war-machine on millions of unsuspecting Iraqi civilians, causing one of the biggest human crises of modern times, under the pretext of liberating Iraq and the women and men of Iraq . Read More

Coleen Rowley- Exactly a decade ago, when Bush-Cheney's war machine was hell-bent on invading Iraq and few Washington power figures were brave enough to get in the way, I made this appeal to FBI Director Robert Mueller. The Cassandra business of warning about catastrophes that come true is certainly a thankless proposition. But it's hardly the time to stop trying when ten years later, the consequences of instituting the "preemptive war" doctrine have become even more painfully obvious and bankrupting.. Read More

A decade on from the US-led invasion of Iraq, the destruction caused by foreign occupation and the subsequent regime has had a massive impact on Iraqis' daily life – the most disturbing example of which is violence against women. At the same time, the sectarian regime's policy on religious garb is forcing women to retire their hard-earned rights across the spectrum: employment, freedom of movement, civil marriage, welfare benefits, and the right to education and health services .Read More

March 19th is the 10th Anniversary of the commencement of the War in Iraq: A war that ended quietly in December 2011 and was quickly and deeply forgotten by many. It's consequences, though, are far-reaching and very present. As we reach the watermark of a decade since the war began it seems a fitting time to have a frank discussion of what the war has wrought for those who have participated in it.  Read More

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On International Women's Day, the National Organization for Women calls upon leaders in the United States to firmly reject the austerity model that has been economically devastating to our sisters in Europe. Call it what you like -- austerity, sequester, deficit reduction, balancing the budget. I call it a stealth attack on women. Read More

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Our office is in the process of obtaining approval to release the statement PFC Manning read to the Court in support of his providence inquiry on 28 February 2013.  As with every Defense filing, the statement will be reviewed and redacted prior to publication. Read More

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Bradley Manning has shown us once again that he is a hero. On Thursday, February 28, he made a profound and historic statement to a military court and to the world. Reading from prepared notes for over an hour, Bradley detailed how he released classified military and government documents to Wikileaks, and he explained why he did so. Read More

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We are organizing a Global Day of Action on Military Spending each year in April to coincide with the release of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s (SIPRI) annual figures on world military expenditures. It is also Tax Day in the US. In 2013, GDAMS will take place on Monday, April 15.. Read More

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On Friday, February 22, Pax Christi USA and the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker held a vigil outside the White House, while President Barack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met inside for lunch. The Japanese prime minister is from a political party calling for the repeal of Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution which renounces war and prevents Japan from becoming a nuclear power.. Read More

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HILADELPHIA (February 25, 2013) – Gene Sharp, whose decades of research and analyses of the effectiveness of nonviolence has been used worldwide to create or support fledgling democracies, has been nominated for the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). Read More

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Resist AFRICOM is a campaign comprised of concerned U.S. and Africa-based organizations and individuals opposed to the new U.S. military command for Africa (AFRICOM).

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After eight months of low-profile inactivity, the Iranian nuclear issue sprang to life this week in widely separate venues: Washington and Kazakhstan.  In Kazakhstan’s capital Almaty, Iran’s nuclear negotiators met with the “P5+1” (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, plus Germany).  Read More

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While our communities suffer and so many desperately need jobs, 58% of the U.S. government’s discretionary budget goes to the Pentagon. Most of this huge budget is both unnecessary and wasteful. Saturday, March 23, Marylanders will hit the road to demand that Congress prioritize human needs over war. Supporters from DC and VA will join us at the end at a Capitol rally -- co-sponsored by CODEPINK, United for Peace & Justice, Progressive Democrats of America, DC Labor Council, Peace Action, MoveOn DC, Pax Christi Metro DC-Baltimore and Institute for Policy Studies' Genuine Progress Project.
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Something is happening in the Delaware River watershed, something important and inspiring.

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Essentially game over" for the climate. That's what climate scientist James Hansen calls the proposed Keystone XL pipeline -- which would carry oil out of Canada's vast tar sands oil fields to Texas, where it will be refined, then burned across the globe, dealing a catastrophic blow to our chance of returning earth to a stable climate.

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